My 2000 Ford Ranger has a 2,200 lb towing capacity (only so low because it is the 4wd supercab 5spd with the small V6). It also has a 1,280 lb payload. The GCWR (Gross Combined Weight Rating) is 6,000 lbs. This means the curb weight of the truck (3,800 lbs) plus whatever it has for payload in it and towing hooked up. It has seen around 1,500lbs in the bed twice now and over 1,000lbs more times than I can count on my hands and toes and never had much of an issue with it. It has also pulled out three different vehicles, one of which weighed more than the truck. I haven’t done much with trailers though, in fact, I’ve only moved empty ones so far. Tomorrow I will be hauling about 2,000lbs behind the truck (trailer and load), should do just fine.
Back to the specs, you can see that if I max out my towing I can’t have ANYTHING in the truck for payload to stay legit. If I have the max payload in the back of my truck, that leaves me with 920lbs that I could tow behind me. So having a trailer would be handy to increase my overall load carrying capacity. The biggest help would be that I could fit things on a trailer that won’t fit in my 6ft bed. Due to weight constraints I will only be able to haul 1/4 to 1/3 cord of wet/fresh cut wood at a time, but could easily haul 1/2 cord of seasoned firewood.
Since the truck came from the factory with a Class III hitch rated at 5,000lbs, towing a “Ranger size” trailer won’t be a concern.
